Stamps & Philately selecting the themes of the upcoming EUROPA stamps issues and monitoring any developments that may affect European philately and EUROPA stamps The Working Group organises a European Philately Forum every two years with the active participation from all PostEurop Members The next forum will be held in 11 March 2016 in Essen Germany The EUROPA stamp themes for the years to come have been determined by the Stamps and Philately Working Group as follows 2009 Astronomy 2010 Children Books 2011 Forests 2012 Visit 2013 The postman van 2014 National Music Instruments 2015 Old Toys 2016 Ecology in Europe Think Green 2017 Castles 2018 Bridges Main achievements In order to provide philately departments of all Members with quick access to key information the working group is creating a benchmark of successful philatelic activities undertaken by PostEurop Members This will be supported by a database of those experts who have implemented the best practices with a view to facilitating implementation by other operators Updated 12 01 2016 Chair Anita Häggblom ÅLAND Åland Post Stamps T 358 405020783 F 358 18636608 E anita haggblom poste Vice Chair Agnieszka Trzaskowska POLAND Poczta Polska E agnieszka trzaskowsk Coordinator Antonio Manuel Amaral PostEurop T 32 2

News business Mr Markku Penttinen Development Director of Itella Finland presented the complex and growing consumer mobile behaviour in Europe which includes the use of mobile apps videos and promotions Participants also learnt more about the purchasing behaviour of consumers using smartphones Smartphones are an invention which has been around less than 20 years but the growth and development of its usage is tremendous We must keep up with the times and understand how customers interface with smartphones to be able to reach them says Mr Penttinen More and more postal operators have invested in smartphone technology for this very reason Mr Glendon Martinez Managing Director for the World Online Philatelic Agency WOPA in Gibraltar and guest speaker presented WOPA and its activities in mainly helping postal operators to sell stamps in countries don t have a reach They were working on a new website which launched in mid July and hope that more postal operators will consider to join WOPA Another innovative development is in the area of QR Codes and Infrared stamps Mrs Stela Prislan Fujs Corporate Marketing and Development of Hrvatska Posta Croatia spoke about the usage of QR Codes and Infrared stamps with hidden images embedded in stamps at the Croatian Post as a concrete example of a new technology application on philately In line with Mrs Prislan Fujs Mr Peter De Fre Manager Segment Marketing from bpost Belgium talked about the importance of both innovative design and promotion to raise awareness and change the public s dusty perception of the philatelic industry Special issues can leverage from this raised awareness Promotion and awareness can be a good mix of applying the latest printing technology to an innovative design to finding an innovative location to launch the stamp attracting publicity Mr De Fre proceeded to give concrete examples from bpost in recent years of how this was done in Belgium Hence working with the Marketing and Communication teams is essential It was also mentioned that despite the aging populating it young persons have an emotional link to letters In line with Mrs Prislan Fujs Mr Peter De Fre Manager Segment Marketing from bpost Belgium talked about the importance of both innovative design and promotion to raise awareness and change the public s dusty perception of the philatelic industry Special issues can leverage from this raised awareness Promotion and awareness can be a good mix of applying the latest printing technology to an innovative design to finding an innovative location to launch the stamp attracting publicity Mr De Fre proceeded to give concrete examples from bpost in recent years of how this was done in Belgium Hence working with the Marketing and Communication teams is essential It was also mentioned that despite the aging populating it young persons have an emotional link to letters Participants also had the pleasure to get to know the latest stamp printing techniques from another guest speaker Ms Karine Zaworski from Cartor Security Printing Cartor is a familiar name amongst the philately group

EUROPA Competition can enter the competition The new EUROPA logo is compulsory as of 2011 for all issues Please email António Manuel Amaral for the new logo and logo guidelines Themes Each year PostEurop s Stamps Philately Working Group selects the EUROPA stamp theme The theme for 2014 was National music instruments In the current year of 2015 the theme is Old Toys Upcoming themes In 2016 the theme will be Ecology

Accord II their entry into the European Union and to achieve compliance with the quality standards set out for the EU Member States It contained a series of measures to which those postal operators committed themselves both individually and on the basis of harmonized actions at the European and national level The initiative has also received the support of other interested organizations including the European Commission the UPU CERP and IPC In 2003 with European Union enlargement fast approaching and in light of the revised EU Directive 2002 39 EC PostEurop launched a new Accord ACCORD II to encourage and facilitate compliance with the postal directives The concept of Accord II is to encourage current postal operators and members of the EU and EEA to support PostEurop Members within the accession countries guided by two principles Group A signatories commit their organisations to achieve the five targets see above Programme area included in the Accord II in order to facilitate achievement at a national level of the standards required by the Postal Directive Group B signatories commit their organisations to support Group A signatories in achieving the five targets by providing practical assistance and projects to be agreed between the participants and

PRO ACTIN a part of the PHARE initiative and is coordinated by PostEurop The PROACTIN Project is conceived to facilitate Beneficiary Countries Postal Operators in strengthening awareness transfer of experiences learned and technical competences at the same time as guarantying quality of services and related technical standards at EU level in order to achieve an internal market for postal services for the benefits of the business communities and civil society Project Beneficiaries Bulgarian Posts plc Bulgaria Hrvatska posta d d Croatia Posta Romana Romania Turkey Post Turkey Project Partners bpost Belgium Deutsche Post AG Germany La Poste France ELTA Post Greece Poste Italiane Italy PostNL The Netherlands Maltapost Malta CTT Correios de Portugal S A Portugal Observers Makedonska Posta FYROM Results The PROACTIN project set out to provide the 4 beneficiary countries in depth knowledge insights and training on the European Postal Market The 2 Year project covered a broad array of topics from the functioning of the European Institutions and its regulation process to the far ready impact of regulation or operations labour relations customers and the provision of quality Postal Services The dissemination process also allowed the project to accomplish in excellent manner and produced concrete results Because of the

LDV 2010 Life Long Learning programme Leonardo da Vinci in the year 2010 particularly Training Partnership for a Changing Post Project The Project duration was 2 years and ended in July 2012 The partnership objective was to create an efficient and innovative training Expert Network to anticipate competences for now and for the future for the crucial and critical positions and jobs in the postal sector The actions were to share best practices to promote initiatives in the area of training to anticipate needs to promote skills development in a sector in permanent evolution with an important workforce The Project was coordinated by La Poste France and partners included PostEurop expert in Project Management Bulgarian Posts Hrvatska Posta Deutsche Post Correos y Telégrafos and Turkish PTT The observers are Magyar Posta CTT Correios de Portugal and Swiss Post The beneficiaries of the programme were the Training and Human Resources experts the trainees and the top management of those postal operators Results Identified critical and crucial jobs in the sector and described needs and competences for now and for the future Shared solutions to develop training for those crucial and critical positions Shared best practices Promoted the initiatives in the area of training